It’s Finally Time to Celebrate Harrison Ford’s Earring

I broke up with Harrison Ford in 1997. Okay, let me whittle down the dozen clarifications I need to make to the statement to the most important ones: I have never dated Harrison Ford, I have never met Harrison Ford, I didn’t even know I was gay in 1997, and I was only 13 in 1997. But still, I went through something intensely heartbreaking and intensely one-sided with Ford in the summer between 7th and 8th grade that took me a long time to get over.

And it all started with that damn earring.

The summer of 1997 gave Harrison Ford another massive blockbuster (Air Force One, the movie where the president punches Russians instead of kissing up to them), one that further solidified him as the preeminent action star of the modern film era. The Star Wars trilogy and the Indiana Jones films established him as a true megastar in the ’70s and ’80s, and he took it to a new level in the ’90s with The Fugitive and his two outings as CIA dad Jack Ryan (Patriot Games and Clear and Present Danger). 1997 was also the year that Star Wars made a comeback; yes, there actually was a time when Star Wars was in need of a comeback, and the trilogy’s re-release celebrating its 20th anniversary did just that. I began the summer of 1997 fully idolizing Harrison Ford. By the fall, I would feel betrayed–so betrayed that I’d go into 8th grade proclaiming A Very Brady Sequel as my new favorite movie of all-time in place of The Empire Strikes Back.

That damn earring…

My Harrison Ford devotion was quite possibly my most defining characteristic from the ages of 6 to 13. As soon as I saw the first Star Wars film on VHS in December 1990, I was on board. Han Solo was my guy, and so was Harrison Ford. I memorized his birthday (today, July 13, which is why this whole catharsis is happening!) and watched every movie of his I could. The Fugitive, Air Force One, I even watched the romance remake Sabrina. Like, I was 10 and totally into Clear and Present Danger, quite possibly the definitive dad movie. There was no one cooler than Harrison Ford.

And then two things broke my heart: that earring, and this Oprah interview.

Who was this Harrison Ford?! A man who said he’d never play Han Solo again, saying Han didn’t have as much depth as Indiana Jones?! A man who, in August 1997, debuted a trendy short-and-spiky-haired look and earring to match?! My hero was dead, killed by my hero (I guess kinda like how Darth Vader betrayed and murdered Anakin Skywalker)!

It’s not hyperbole to say that this one-two punch ruined me, because your entire reality is hyperbole at 13. I could not handle Ford dissing Han Solo, by far his best character IMO. The reason I liked Indiana Jones and the reason I even feigned interest in Jack Ryan was because of Ford. And here he was, pierced and dissing my intergalactic idol! Devastating!

I’m from Tennessee. I was raised Southern Baptist and culturally conservative. I was raised to believe that men should not wear earrings unless, I guess, if they were Bobby Brown or were in Bon Jovi (or were any other musician in regular rotation in our cassette deck). But the eye rolls my parents unleashed when they saw men with pierced ears, how could I not internalize it? And when I saw it on my hero–let me just say, my parents weren’t pleased by this mid-life decision, so I wasn’t either! The earring came to represent this new Ford, one who didn’t look like the man I looked up to, and I despised it.

Fast-forward 21 years. Wouldn’t it be wild if the reveal here was that I now had an earring? Sadly, that’s not the reveal. The reveal is that I’ve matured. Empire is my favorite movie ever once again (A Very Brady Sequel only had the throne for a few months). My love for Ford took a long while to grow back, but it did heal (not like Ford’s ear piercing, because dude still sports one today from time to time). It took me close to a decade to get over my middle school meltdown, but I did. And now, especially since Ford did play Han one more time in the fantastic Star Wars: The Force Awakens, I can appreciate Ford’s earring for what it is: a truly goofy accessory that just adds more mystique to the most down-to-Earth yet elusive actor alive today.

Getty Images for Celebrity Fight

Can we talk about how Ford got an earring in 1997 on a whim? How he got it because he felt peer pressure to look more like his buds Jimmy Buffett and Ed Bradley? How he, like every teenage girl, got his ear pierced in a CLAIRE’S?! How he then gave an autograph to the 18-year-old that did the deed, signing it, “You made a hole in me. Harrison Ford.”?!

I love that. I love every detail in that story. I love that how it confirms everything you think you know about Ford and also teases how little you actually know. Of course Ford, the guy that refuses to play by the rules during any late night talk show appearance, would be like “whatever, I’ll get my ear pierced in my 50s.” But the reasoning, because he felt left out, makes him feel more… human… more self conscious? But Ford’s also a guy that routinely walks away from plane crashes unharmed, one that helped rescue a woman after a car accident. He goes where he wants and does what he wants, seemingly without a care about how it looks, how it’ll be perceived, or how “Hollywood legends” should act. He’s just Harrison Ford, and there’s no one else like him.

And Harrison Ford has an earring, because Harrison Ford just does whatever he wants–and that’s why I love Harrison Ford, dangly gold hoop and all.